The Horror of Merman
by tslove
Summary: The narrator recalls his first chilling encounter with King Squiddish Rex, The horrific evil King of the Eternian Merfolk and servant of the evil Lord of Destruction.


**The Horror Of Merman**

The old man sat writing at his table, it was time he told his grandson about the Scientists Priest of Infinitia, or as much as he thought they boy could hear and not go mad. The boy had been asking lately about the mysterious "fish people" that lived beneath the Eternian seas, so it was time to speak of their legendary leader, the enigmatic Scientists Priest known only as King Merman.

King Merman did not come to his kingship by vote or any democratic process, nor even by right of birth. Instead it was by violent overthrow that the powerful sorcerer seized the coveted throne, which in turn gave him access to and control of all the ocean depths of Eternia. In a very real sense, King Merman was more powerful than any landside ruler, and the fact that he remained a vassal to the Lord Of Destruction, and never tried to use his overwhelming forces to take control of the Dark Hemisphere himself, perhaps spoke more than anything else about the ferocity of the dread thing that the four Scientists Priests of Infinitia had brought to Eternia. It can be assumed that the majority of the Merfolk population, yes there were females, but being a patriarchal superstitious society they kept the females hidden away from human eyes, it can be assumed that the common MerMan and even the common soldier had no idea that their king was both a Scientists Priest and in league with the forces of evil. Indoctrinated from birth as they were, they believed that _everything _that walked the land was malignant and untrustworthy, and so they acted thus. This has been confirmed through interrogation of captured MerMan soldiers and scribes.

The King ruled from his throne in a way common to all despots and dictators, any who were even presumed to be speaking words against him were very publically fed to razor sharks or bonefish, and any who were caught actually plotting against him suffered even more terrible fates. There was the story of the Captain of his guard Vish-Nook, a fabled warrior among the MerMen who had been in service to the throne for hundreds of years. MerMan kept him after the coup more as a political move than anything else, Vish-Nook was well liked by the Merfolk and there was a time that the King actually appeared to be interested in the hearts of his people. Unfortunately , that time was very short, and in the end proven to be a sham.

King Merman had had his eyes on Vish-Nook for a long time, imagining that the Captain was not faithful to the new regime. Using foul sorcery, he had discovered a cabal of secret revolutionaries that Vish-Nook was meeting with. The King moved quickly, within hours all revolutionaries save Vish-Nook were flayed and then fed to sharks, but Vish-Nook was mysteriously absent. He remained missing for months , and all assumed he was rotting in a dark dungeon. The truth would turn out to be far worse.

Months after disappearing Vish-Nook returned quietly in the night as a remade transformed mechanical fish monster. He murdered first his family and made flags from their intestines, which he then flew outside of their estate in the underwater city of Bathron, with the words "Those who challenge the King will be punished" written in the Merfolk letters. Then he made his way around the Crystal Sea, swimming impossibly fast, using new thyrogenic jetpacks to aid his monstrous mechanical tail and fins. He slaughtered the family of every co -conspirator first, making the same flags outside their houses. Then, he made his way to Vish-Nooks childhood village, and slaughtered _every_ inhabitant there, numbering to three hundred and twenty Merfolk, this time letting the gore and blood float few soldiers who tried to protect their people were slaughtered as well, and their families were marked for future punishment. Merfolk smell and taste through a very sophisticated network of chemical interactions and reactions that begin with hormones secreted in adrenal glands in their gills, and it was said that for _years _afterward no one could stand to be within twenty kilometers of sea around the slaughtered village due to the lingering gore smells and fear chemicals in the water. MerMan had made a statement.

The Merfolk understood. Their new king demanded absolute obedience, and in exchange would make them a powerful, feared force, but more importantly a _united _force. Since time out of mind the MerMen government had existed only as a loose confederation, since distance between undersea villages frequently led to miscommunication and disputes. Even though the Merfolk used their advanced chemical nervous systems to pass messages (they could secrete codes and messages on certain hormones and leave them in the water for years, where they could be picked up and intercepted only by other Mermen) and even though they employed the use of sharks and small faster fish to pass information from one post to another, the very size of the oceans they inhabited in the past had presented a challenge to the dissemination of information, as well as the fact that they were of notorious bad temper.

But they had never before had a ruler like MerMan. He had taken the throne in a near bloodless coup with the aid of powerful thaumaturgy and cloaked machines, which had drilled a tunnel underneath the Mer Castle. Once inside the castle, he had released a dark orb, which enveloped Mer-Castle in a dark, oppressive energy that saddened and sapped the will of all those within its proximity. Most of the soldiers surrendered without a fight, and the few who did try to fight found themselves quickly disemboweled by an intruder moving so fast they could not even see him. MerMan chose to enter the Kings court alone, as he had invaded the Castle keep alone. After capturing the minds of the guards with thaumaturgy and ordering them to open the door, he entered the keep alone, a tall fish man figure wearing a form covering golden robe and a face covering golden armored mask.

The doors to the Kings Keep were very large, twenty feet tall and wide and carved from yellow reef from the Crystal Sea. Countless figures from ruling families of the past were carved into the reef rock, each illustrating an act of the ruling families history, be it slaying giant squid or raiding Eternian Freighters, all were mythologized in the sea rock. To the frog like eyes of the Scientists Priest, the door was like an ode to failure itself. Therefore as the giant door swung open he changed his mind, and hurling his golden trident at the supposedly impenetrable door, shattered it into thousands of pieces. The royal court inside was startled to their feet. All but the fat and pompous king, dressed in a robe made of diamonds and korodite, his bulbous belly spilling out of the robe for all to see. "What is the meaning of this?" He gargled in the Mer language.

"The meaning is that your reign is at an end, your kingship has been one of abject failure, and now I take it from you," Merman answered back calmly.

The king seemed confused, "Who is this?"He demanded, "Guards, come take this creature!"

"I think not, fat man," the intruder said, "You are on my throne." With that he removed his mask and robe, and many in the court, females and males, fainted with horror.

What stood before them should not have existed. It had the body and shape of a large muscular Merman, but that was where the similarities ended. As it retrieved its trident, those in court who could stand to look upon it, did so. It's repulsive skin was a sickening pale greenish skin compared to the healthy blue or dark green tones of other Merfolk, instead of the glittering sleek scales of a normal Merman, it had ragged sharp scales that stuck out from the skin it had like razor blades. The skin that was left was peeling, decaying as if it was a dead thing, flaking off of its body in multiple random spots and revealing hard bone beneath. Its face was an exercise in monstrous perversion, all of the skin was gone from its cheeks and gnarled ridged bone was visible sticking out, the creature had unnaturally long teeth like a bone shark, and there seemed to be too many fang-like teeth in its mouth. Closer inspection revealed that the lips were gone, and the mouth appeared so wide due to this fact , where the lips had been was simply the working jawbone of the MerMan, and the teeth grew from gums so decayed that they added an extra two inches in length to each tooth, that appeared to had been, over time, actually petrified somehow to stone, great four inch stone fangs that could no doubt rip and tear the flesh of any creature. The gnarled, webbed hands and feet of the creature ended in similar bone claws, but the teeth themselves dripped with foul poison that smoked when it hit the floor, as if the creature through some abhorrent thaumaturgy had acquired venom glands. But worst of all, the creature stood before them completely naked, yet still armored. Complex growths of putrid yellow barnacles covered the creatures torso and the area around its eyes, leaving only the black orbs themselves free. The barnacles continued their growth pattern down its neck, leaving only the gill ridges free so that it could breathe. The barnacles were perhaps the best armor the creature could have had. They would be hard as even korodite perhaps, thus no blade, energy or projectile weapon could pierce them, and they were clearly connected to the creatures body in some kind of symbiotic relationship, thus they would constantly be getting stronger off of nutrients from the creatures body. The court warriors who still dared to look upon the creature realized that this may be a foe that they could not defeat.

The creature was armed with a yellow trident, made from the same barnacle material. A short sword hung at his side, but he carried no shield, as the barnacle armor implied he did not need one. The near seven foot tall Merman monstrosity towered over the other Merfolk, the tallest warrior in court was just under six feet, so he was a armored giant. More than that however, he carried an unmistakable air of royalty about him, as if he was where he _belonged_. It was then the king noticed the court wizard on his knees in supplication to the monster.

"What are you doing Hali-Buut ?" He growled.

The wizard ignored the obese kings question, and instead kept his eyes downcast. "My Lord," he said clearly addressing the monstrous intruder. "You have returned. My life and service is yours. Praise be your name."

"Explain yourself now!" The king roared in rage. "Why does this thing still live?"

The creature laughed, and the sound was so terrible that many tried to close their ears to it. "I am your god, little fat man," it said, "and I have come to pass judgment upon you!"

It should be noted now that the while many aspects of the Merfolks native religion remain a mystery to outsiders, the basic tenets were discovered to be ancestor worship. The Merfolk royal line had been in power for ten thousand years, and those of the ancestral line who had performed the greatest deeds while ruling commanded the greatest respect in the afterlife. None were more powerful than Squidish Rex. Born as a prince at a time when the Merfolk were simply a collection of warring clans, Squidish Rex, through his indomitable will and his impressive command of thaumaturgy united all the various clans under one banner, his own. He then went on to join the great evil Hordak in attempted conquest of Eternia. Squidish Rex was one of the Three Sorcerers who helped Hordak invoke the Spell of Separation, which flooded the Rakish Caverns turning them into a sea, bringing many monsters and fell things into Eternia, and as a consequence nearly destroyed the planet. Rex was high in Hordaks inner circle, and took his personal clan and armies to abide in the Sea of Rakish, while continuing to command the Merfolk as a whole. Due to his powerful thaumaturgies and magic, he was able to command not only the Merfolk, but all cold blooded undersea life as well. Only the mammals escaped his power.

When Hordak and the Evil Horde were finally defeated by the Great King Greyskull in the cataclysmic Great Wars, Squidish Rex realized that he had placed his trust in the wrong vessel. He had long divined the forces of chaos, darkness and destruction building on Eternia, and had thought those forces were crystallizing in Hordak, to use him as a vessel. He had been wrong. He had suffered for his miscalculation. The brunt of the Evil Horde that day that attacked Castle Greyskull, including Hordak, had been swept away into the prison realm of Despondos following dying King Greyskull releasing his power. The only thing that had saved Rex was that he had been hundreds of leagues away, leading his MerMen in attacking Greyskulls navy in the Crystal Sea, apparently too far for the reach of Greyskulls thaumaturgy. When a fish messenger came and told him of Hordaks defeat, he abruptly ceased his own battle and took his division of troops back to The Rakish Sea. There he appointed his eldest son his successor, and set an elaborate plan in motion.

For many years Squidish Rex had been in contact with dark forces from the dimension of Infinitia. These forces he communed with through a korodite dark shard were vague, appearing usually as black or purple smoke, and often ambiguous in their answers, but they had given him great power. But the power had twisted his mind and spirit, turning a will already inclined to evil to pure evil. The forces had made him understand that the magic of the Eternians could be combined with the science and technology of the Infinitians to create machines and entities to make men cower and bow in servitude. The forces had picked him to be one of their representatives on Eternia, of which there would be four, and all four must be great kings who would in turn serve the greatest king of all, the Lord of Destruction himself. Rex was told the four would be known as Scientists Priest, and be feared far and wide. He understood that there was one other who walked Eternia presently who numbered among the four, but he resided deep within the Vine Jungles and was not part of Hordaks Evil Horde. Each of the four Scientists Priests would command according to their nature, and all in honor of and servitude to the Lord Of Destruction it was explained. Rex himself would command all sea life, save mammals, as well as his own peoples. The beast man from the Vine Jungles would command the fierce predators of Eternias forest and mountains. Of the two to come, one would command robots, cyborgs, and all manner of cybernetic life, and the last would command the undead. The Lord Of Destruction would command all.

Rex was surprised that Hordak was not the One, but then the forces of Infinitia had never promised that he would be, only that the one was coming. He had simply placed his trusts in the wrong campaign. That would not happen again. After returning to the Rakish sea and handing over his throne, Rex had performed many exhausting spells to cloak his presence so that the world, even his own ancestors would think that he was dead. He then called for a conference with his wizard, and explained his plan. He would go into hibernation in a crypt beneath the ocean, for many years, as long as it took for the other three Scientists Priest of Infinitia to assemble. He had woven a magic around himself so that as soon as the gathering of the three happened, he would know of it and be awakened, and they too would be alerted of his presence. To such ends, he had the korodite shard buried with him, so that the Infinitians may wake him from his slumber when the time was right. In the contract to his ancestors it was deeded that should he ever return, the throne would be his again. He also demanded that the Merfolk kingdom be moved to the Crystal Seas as the raiding would be easier there with the abundance of trade routes. Finally, he ordered a whole division of his most trusted Mer-Warriors, one thousand troops, to be buried like he, only without as many charms and thaumaturgies, he had to insure that he remained the strongest. Then, he went into a watery tomb, and waited.

Long, long years passed. Ten thousand, and while he lay hibernating in his watery rest over the years his strong magic shields weakened, enough to let in small fish and sea amoebas, which fed on his flesh. In his state he could feel the feeding as no more than a small nuisance, but was able to muster enough power and will to direct thaumaturgenic shocks to keep them away from his eyes and orifices. Finally barnacles had started to grow on his body, and he was able to unconsciously direct the growth so that the barnacles formed strong natural armor around his eyes and torso. Over the long period of time his gums receded while his teeth and claws grew long, and turned to bone, becoming possibly unbreakable. Finally he discovered that with the aid of thaumaturgies he had wrapped around himself, his body had evolved venom glands located behind his incisors, and it seemed this venom was capable of incapacitating any enemy. He was pleased also to discover that his scales had hardened into razor sharp points. He had developed an armored exoskeleton.

The call came, and Squidish Rex awoke. He opened his eyes in his watery grave and quickly internally surmised how much time at passed. He had discovered that the Rakish Sea was dark and cold, and completely abandoned. His Mer-Folk had moved to warmer waters, and this was his fist clue that they had become weak. He would change that soon. He awoke his warriors and gave them their commands, pleased to see that after their long slumber they were still his death troops, faithful until the end. They had not been as protected as he against the flesh eaters of the ocean floor, and most had been stripped completely of skin, but had grown barnacles between their exposed bones over the cartilage. They were undead monstrosities, and this pleased Squidish Rex greatly, the mere sight of them would make most cower in battle.

Squidish Rex had made his way to the land, and upon exposure to the air his long waterlogged skin had shriveled and wrinkled and turned a ghastly greenish yellow, making his sharp scales protrude further and adding to the general horror of his visage. He followed the Call and had met with the BeastMan of the Vine Jungles, the Lord of Predators. The BeastMan was crude and like an animal, but Squidish Rex saw right away that was just a disguise, and underneath rested a cunning intellect. They joined and journeyed together to find the third Scientists Priest, following the Call. Deep inside the Eternal Mountain they had discovered him, Lord Tridor Essionux -Tri-Klops, evil technologists, inventor, and sword-smith, he of the three eyes surrounded by an army of robotic warriors. Lord Tri-Klops told them the fourth was coming, he had foreseen it, the leader of a tribe of desert raiders would soon come to him seeking Eternal Life, and then he would be Remade. Then they would be ready for their Great Task, awakening the Lord Of Destruction.

Squidish Rex had then directed his attention to reclaiming his own kingdom. He gathered together his death troops, and commanded an armada of giant squids for them to ride upon. He himself rode a deadly razor shark, with twenty more sharks trailing behind. Thus they had made their way towards the MerCastle in the Crystal Seas. Along the way they had destroyed dozens of various trade ships, killing their crew, simply to announce their return, and finally they had accosted and taken down a Eternian Royal Freighter. The Mer-Men would be feared again, and all would know that the ocean was theirs.

When first they arrived they had met resistance from the UnderWater Cities defenses, but those defenses were easily breached. One hundred MerMen swam into battle to stop them, but surrendered easily. Rex then ordered the prisoners executed, he would not abide cowards in his ranks. Finally, he had destroyed the great doors and entered the Castle keep where he stood facing the throne.

Squidish Rex ordered the trembling court wizard to rise, and he did. " You, at least, honor me," he told the black robed Mer-Man, "for this , and for knowing the Call, you will have a place in my Court. What are you called?"

"Hali-Buut my lord," the wizard answered, standing but still bowing, "If it please you."

"It does not. Nothing in this hovel of mediocrity pleases me. You name now is Tshar-Tuk. Know you the meaning of this name?"

"My Lord honors me! I do, in the old language it means 'One who hears and understands.' Thank you, my gracious Lord."

Squidish Rex nodded. "You heard and understood. I felt your summons, though it was weak and small, against the mighty summons of the Call. Tell this court why you summoned me and who I am."

"Yes, Lord. You are the Thooo-Gah-Tuer, in the old language, the feared killer of the seas. You are the Ob-wun, the Lord of Waters. You are the Kere-Kah, the bane of all that walk only on dry land, and you are the Tei-Wah-Na, the God of our people!"

Squidish Rex nodded. "Your command of the old words is impressive. I fear it is meaningless to the fat pretender however. Therefore, tell him in language he can understand who I am."

The newly christened Tshar-Tuk nodded and looked directly at the fat king looking very confused on his throne. Sweeping his arms to indicate Squidish Rex he said "He is the Lord Squidish Rex the Deathless, the rightful king of our people!"

The fat king became angry. "Impossible!" he said. "I know the histories. Squidish Rex disappeared ten thousand years ago, abdicating his throne to his line forever. I am of his line, that makes me king! Why are we arguing this when this thing should be dead? Guards, do your damned job!"

It was then that all noticed that the guards had fallen to their knees in worship of Squidish Rex.

"There is a division of warriors outside your walls the likes of which have not been seen in these oceans for ten thousand years," Squidish Rex said."I could order them to storm these walls and take this throne, if I wished. I do not wish this though, I will not take what is already mine. If you truly knew your history, fatman, you would know that the throne was not abdicated, all of my line were simply stewards until the day I returned. And I have returned. What a disgrace to see what me family has become! It is clear we must start anew." He turned to the cowering guards. "Is there a captain here? Good. Have all breeding females bonded to this fat king killed and their eggs destroyed."

"Outrage!" The King cried, "You can't..."

"Yes, My Lord." The Guard Captain said, as he rose to fulfill his duties.

"High Pope Tshar-Tuk," Squidish Rex said addressing the wizard, letting him know that he had just been promoted to the head of the Church based upon the worship of Rex, a position of inconceivable honor and wealth, "It seems we have an apostate in our midst. Show this man what my Church does to the tongues of apostates. We must leave him alive long enough to deed the throne back to me, unfortunately."

The newly crowned pope nodded and chanted for a moment, collecting all the static power in the air of the room. He knew that this was an important opportunity to impress his new God-king. It condensed into a single bolt of glowing power, which he directed at the open mouth of the fat former king, whose long tongue was then burned to embers. The fat Merman fell off of his throne screaming pitifully.

"Impressive," Rex nodded, "have the papers drawn up now."

The appropriate legal documents were retrieved and with some painful thaumaturgenic encouragement from Squidish Rex the fat king signed them, thus relinquishing the throne to Rex. It was witnessed and approved by High Pope Tshar-Tuk, as custom dictated. Then the old Pope was found and brought before Rex, and sentenced to exile. He had wailed at this, MerMen were not solitary, and especially having no combat abilities he could not expect to survive very long on his own. Finally, the former king was executed by Rex himself, who demonstrated his ferocity and ruthless in front of his troops when he decapitated the former king with a single swipe of his webbed hand. He then had taken the throne.

In the years that followed, Squidish Rex had transformed the MerMen into a legendary guerrilla fighting force. Their attacks on Eternian sea freighters were fast and hard, and they usually killed everyone aboard and had taken the freight in minutes. In port after port sailors told horror stories about how one moment the ocean would be calm, and the next it would be swarming with fish men who would be riding giant squid or undulating bonefish, and use their frog like legs to leap off of the sea monsters and board the ships, while the sea monsters attacked the freighters and distracted the sailors. Once onboard, it would only be a few seconds, and a mist of screams and gore and everyone would be massacred, with the fishmen soon disappearing back into the sea with any valuables aboard the boat. In happened so frequently you heard the stories in every port.

When Eternian Royal Carriers began to be attacked, the new king had had enough. King Randor, only six years since his crowning, arranged for a meeting with the Mer-King, who was still unknown to the world above the seas at that time. He still hoped that a peaceful diplomatic solution could end their conflicts. It was one of many mistakes Randor would make early in his kingship, and learn from.

The old man had been the diplomat chosen. He was still a young soldier, although experienced and an eloquent speaker, he also had a passable command of the MerMens native language, and being the only person in court to speak the tongue, that was probably the reason above others that he had been chosen. Twenty armed soldiers accompanied him, and they were given use of a submersible vehicle to take them into the Crystal Seas and the home of the Mermen.

When they first saw the underwater lights of the great Mer-City of Seaworth, they were confused. They had expected a bustling underwater metropolis with streets full of activity, but what they had found was a ghost town. Empty shops and hovels lined the streets, and the only activities seemed to be from a patrolling Mer-man soldiers. The Royal Eternian soldiers began to get nervous.

When they were brought into the Castle keep, they found it too to be completely empty of everything and everyone except soldiers. There were no hangings on the wall, no statues, nothing to indicate the colorful past of the Mer-folk. It was as if_...they were moving_.

They were met by a walking dead thing. A Merman like no other they had seen before, with most of its flesh missing, exposing bone and barnacle armor covering vital organs. It spoke to them : "The king will see all of you in his chambers now. You may keep your weapons. He wishes you to feel safe."

"We are a diplomatic force," the old man-I-had reminded them. "To threaten or endanger us would bring the wrath of Randor upon you!"

The Mer-man monstrosity had simply shrugged, as if the wrath of Randor did not impress him, then urged them to proceed forward.

Gates that had been built of bone swung open to reveal a large, empty throne room. nothing was in the room, not even a throne. Most of the room was dark, for there were a few single torches burning to light a space which must have been thousands of feet in diameter. from the shadows on the far wall a creature stepped forth, and some of the Eternian soldiers gasped.

As a warrior and comrade of the great Lord Adam, I would see the Mer-Man king in battle again over the years, but I never forgot that first sight of him, the horror, the mind reeling at what it saw and refusing to process the information, refusing to believe that this _thing _could walk the same earth as I. It was the first Scientists Priest I had seen, and later, even though the horror would grow and ultimately the Lord Of Destruction himself would have me at his feet weeping like a child in my darkest hour, still I would never forget the sight of this long lived amphibious monster. Even now, in my old age, I awaken from time to time in cold sweat from nightmares of the creatures desiccated face, it's barnacled armor and eyes blacker than death. I have written enough in this history about his appearance to describe him again, but just know that when the tall scaled monster shared the same space as us, we all _felt_ his oppressive presence, as if we suffered life only at his indulgence, and he would take it from us when the mood struck. It was one of the powers of the Scientists Priest, we were to learn later, this existential dread they commanded, but then in that chamber thousands of feet below the surface of the sea we were powerless against it.

"Randor has sent me his toys to beg for his life." The creature spit, venom dropping from his fangs at every word.

"We are a diplomatic party," I chose my words carefully. "We come under the presumption of peace. We do not come to make war, nor to threaten or be threatened."

"Certainly not _to make threats_," the fish-frog monster laughed. "What would you do... against even one of my soldiers?"

I began to panic. I wasn't sure this creature even understood the meaning of diplomacy, nor why we were there. "The purpose of our visit was so that our two kingdoms could come to a mutual understanding _Tawaka-sta_." I said, using the Mer tongue honorific for "your majesty".

"You speak my tongue? That is why they sent you? Then _Ke-wa-Gush, Na Therba-ta-Gua fen_?"

I reddened in anger. The leader of the second largest population on Eternia, and a hostile one, had just asked me if the mothers of my people were breeding seacows.

"_Na-Fen Thuwa_, we will not discuss that which has no relevance," I replied, "_Cura-Tuebot-ha_, you have attacked peaceful Eternian cargo ships and this must stop. We make peace today or the full might of two allied Kingdoms of Randor at Eternos, and Stratos at Avion shall fall upon you, and nowhere shall shelter you, sea or land!" I had spoke from a position of strength, and I prayed that it would be enough

The monster seemed to consider, "Wonder you not why my halls, why my entire city is _empty_?" he asked. "The Mer-people have a new home, human scum, one you can never find, in a sea that you do not even know exists. You will have no peace. Soon, my Master will walk Eternia again, and you will know naught but pain and servitude all the days of your wretched life !"

With that said, valves opened and the hall began to fill with sea water. I gave the order to attack but the creature quickly disappeared, and my men squeezed off ineffectual crossbow shots at him. Soon, the water was chest level and I saw the monster again, he leapt into the water as a frog will, and swam frightfully fast towards us. We had two plasma pistols among us, and we lit the water up where he saw him, but to no avail, he was the fastest swimming creature I had ever seen. One of my men screamed, and I saw him pulled underwater in a burst of red mist. The gunnery sergeant fired, but hit the doomed Eternian man instead. "Hold your fire!" I shouted, "He is too fast, try to get to high ground!"

But it was too late. One by one in a blur of screams and flying blood, the supernaturally fast creature disemboweled my men and then moved to the next. It took him less than a minute to kill twenty men. In the dark waters, which were at that point above my head so that I was treading water to keep my head above the surface, I could not see anything, but bits of viscera from my dead soldiers would float past me. It was then that I began to fathom the extent of this creatures power. How could Randor fight this? Only the Vulnarians could stand a chance against this monstrosity, but would they leave their valley?

It didn't matter, I prepared to die, hoping to at least wound my enemy in the process. But suddenly the valves closed and the seawater stopped pouring in. Instead drains were opened and it began to drain out, taking the blood and bodies of my dead comrades with it. When it was down to my knees, I saw the monster standing on a parapet above me. "I am sparing you," it said, "So you may go back to Randor and give him my message: The time of the Elders and their puppet king is at an end. The line of Randor shall be broken, and a new Lord shall sit upon the throne of the world, as the true Master. Nothing on Eternia is yours, we rule everywhere. The seas are mine. We rule the living and the dead, the breathing and the cybernetic, the land and the sea, and the Lord of Destruction soon shall rule all. I laugh at his peace. Give him this message."

And I was let go. perhaps when you read this, you will think it would have been far more noble of me to attack the creature, to go to my death trying to avenge my dead comrades, and perhaps you would be right. I have struggled with this thought all of my life. But the King, the TRUE king of Eternia, Randor, had to know, not only of the immediate threat from beneath the seas, but the vague menace of the Scientists Priest and the _Lord Of_ _Destruction_. I was sure that the Royal Wizards could make more of this threat than I could, and they had to know. As it turned out, I was wrong, only the Shamans of the Vulnarians, the last worshippers of a quickly disappearing Warrior Goddess religion understood what it really meant, and only a big yellow haired barbarian was bold enough to stand against him at first.

But that was all to come in the future.

As I made my way back to the surface in my submersible wracked with grief for my dead companions I knew I had to focus only of warning my king, and prepared myself in my heart and mind for the war sure to come.


End file.
